Old News Entry – 2001

I am spending today pretty much just watching the story unfold on TV about the U.S. and British attacks on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Thad and I went out to eat around 12:15pm, and caught the beginnings of the coverage, plus President Bush’s address, at the restaurant. Thad went to work during the afternoon/evening, so I have been “home alone” most of the day. Things are pretty quiet here in the Washington D.C. area, and people seem to have been expecting this type of response for quite a while.

Since 9-11 things have been slowly getting back to normal around here. Traffic has eased up over the last week, as roads that had been closed were opened back up. Planes began flying over our house again (we’re in the approach for Reagan National Airport) on Thursday, and people have stopped “freezing” when they hear sirens and airplanes.

If you didn’t know, my office at the US-Taiwan Business Council is located on the 17th floor of a highrise in Rosslyn, Virginia, which is not very far from the Pentagon, and I can see the Pentagon from my office window. On September 11, I came in to the office right before nine, and was greeted by an email from CNN (I subscribe to the Breaking News email service, highly recommended.) that talked about the first plane hitting the WTC. I told everyone in the office, and we lamented the stupidity of someone who could fail to see the twin towers and could manage to accidentally fly into one. After failing to get onto CNN to find out more, I finally managed to find a working news site (MSNBC.com) and found out about the second plane, at which point we all immediately concluded that it was a terrorist attack. At that point, (given that we didn’t have a TV) several members of staff called home to get someone to report the news as they unfolded. One of the girls in the office was supposed to fly to Boston later that day to prepare for our Annual Meeting, scheduled for Sept. 17-19, so she was a little freaked out. We also talked about the possibility of an attack on D.C., but I said that the Capital was probably protected by military aircraft by now, and that it was a far-fetched idea that they would attack two cities at the same time. How wrong was I…

A little while later, the phones started ringing off the hook, and I could hear someone yell “Oh, my god, not the Pentagon too”. I looked out the window, only to see a huge black cloud and flames emanating from the Pentagon. Although we are high up in one of the highrises in Rosslyn, we didn’t hear anything, no airplane approach, no explosion, nothing. (It later turned out that Thad was driving by the Pentagon and had just passed the building when the airplane slammed into it, and he heard it and also saw smoke and flames.) At that point, we were all a bit freaked out. Someone’s mother said that there might be a second plane heading for Washington and that the air space was closed, and someone else said that the USA Today building was being evacuated. We looked over at the USA Today/Gannett building across the street, and there were people streaming out of the building with some running away.

Given that we are located in the only cluster of highrises close to the National Mall (I can see the Pentagon, the Lincoln and the Jefferson memorials, and the Watergate Hotel from my office window) right across the Potomac river, we decided that it was a prudent thing to do to evacuate the office. We left via the stairwell (kind of silly really, but still), and one of the interns took us in his car to my apartment here in Arlington. Three staff-members and two interns in this tiny apartment, and we watched TV for most of the rest of the morning, watching the WTC falling to pieces…

Given that all the roads into D.C. were closed, we were kind of trapped for a while. Thad was trapped at a friend’s house across the city, where he went when he realized that the roads were all closed. The phone rang constantly, and it was really hard to get a line through to Sweden, but I finally got through to an uncle to tell them I was fine. (They might have been worried otherwise…) We were also not able to get in touch with our boss, Rupert, who was in Philadelphia. Cellphone circuits were jammed for hours. Later, Dave, one of the interns, drove me and Chris back to the office to lock up and shut down, plus to pick up my car. We were able to drive back roads to get back towards the city. He then drove home to GA to see his parents, who were very worried. The first roadblock into the city for Lee Hwy. was just north of here, so Megan’s roommate and Chris’s husband went there and met up with them to take them home, and when the Metro began running again I took the remaining intern, Helen, and Jud to the Courthouse station and dropped them off.

The enormous tragedy of the events of that day…. Well, I just don’t think that I have been able to grasp that, and maybe I will never be able to fully process what happened. I look at pictures from a trip to the World Trade Center with my cousin Anna Kaisa several years ago, and marvel at the amazing view that nobody will ever be able to see again. Also, I cringe at the height of the towers, it’s a very long way down for those people who were at the top of the buildings…

It seems that I have repressed that day somewhat, as I can’t really recall a lot of what was said or exactly how I felt. I feel now that something has to be done, and part of that is what is happening right now with the forces in Afghanistan. We just have to take it a day at a time, which is how we have been going about our business since then. Our meeting in Boston was cancelled, given that bringing 200+ Taiwan businessmen to Boston (actually to the hotel where people were arrested by a slew of FBI people for supposedly colluding with the highjackers…) was not going to happen. Too bad, particularly since we had arranged for a live teleconference for a speech by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, but that’s how life goes. We are trying to keep going strong at work, but it’s hard to go from insanely busy planning a huge conference, to finding new projects or picking up old projects that don’t seem so important anymore… But, it’s important to move forward with our lives, because the terrorists have won if we change our lives because of what happened. One thing is for sure, I will never complain about airport or any other type of security again….

Well, on a brighter note, I have had a great year up until recently. It is almost exactly a year since I joined the Council, and I have learned so much that it boggles my mind. We haven’t done much else that deserves writing about, with the exception of a trip to Hawaii this past August. My father and mother in law graciously brought us, together with Kevin, Gillian, and Tessa, along on a trip to gorgeous Hawaii. We visited Oahu, the Big Island of Hawaii, and Lihue. It was an amazing trip, with lots of snorkeling (I saw all kinds of fish, swam with a giant turtle, and even saw an octopus!), as well as a trip to where the Kiluea volcano spews lava into the ocean, which was on the other side of a long hike across lava fields. It was a very powerful experience for all of us.

We also hiked old craters, hiked along the coast on a long hike that became known as the “death march” (they claim it was all my idea…) tried to hide from the sun in various ways, and had a great day sailing on a catamaran next to the wondrous Na Pali coast, where dolphins frolicked in front of the boat. It was a lot of fun, although tiring at times. We saw some cool parts of the surfing culture of Hawaii as well, the most interesting of which, I thought, was this little blue trailer on Oahu’s north shore, which was an Internet access point for the bohemian set. Thad also enjoyed the wildlife there, especially putting sandwich meat on cats, good entertainment when you’re done swimming…

That was a pretty long post, but given that we are living in a time that will become etched in history, I guess that’s not too surprising. Hopefully, it won’t be almost a year until my next post…
Take care.
/Lotta